Barak urges ministers to 'stop babbling'
Defense minister tells Labor faction members he has instructed IDF to prepare response to escalation in rocket fire from Gaza. 'The time, place and manner in which our forces will act will be determined by the professional echelon,' he adds
He explained, "I've instructed the IDF to prepare to anything deduced from this statement – that I and the Israeli government won't accept the situation as it is. The time, place and manner in which our forces will act will be determined by the professional echelon."
He slammed his colleagues at the government and the politicians calling for an IDF offensive. "Today they assume no responsibility. I know them well enough to know that things would have sounded different if responsibility lay on their shoulders.
"I'm also hearing repeated populist recitations from people who have never seen war in their lives, and in the few times when reality led them to deal with life or death, with war and peace, we saw irresponsible and reckless behavior – the results of which we are dealing with to this day.
"I would like to say to these political reciters: If people who were part of a government with dealt with similar things, and proved their irresponsibility and recklessness both in terms of national considerations and personal considerations, if such people have became the spokespeople of parties seeking the public's trust, if people who have proved their inability, if such people become the announcers of different politics – the public will have to judge them.
"I call on everyone to stop the blabbering and logorrhea, because it disrupts the IDF's preparations and could, God forbid, damage the operation's effectiveness. I call on all those blabbers, who have no idea what they are talking about, to keep their mouths shut."
Israeli Ambassador to the United Nations Prof. Gabriela Shalev sent a harsh letter of complaint on Sunday night to UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and to the Security Council president following the intensification in the rocket fire directed at Israel from the Gaza Strip.
Ambassador Shalev made it clear in her letter that Israel views Hamas as solely responsible for the escalation in the region.
Israel's residents will not be Hamas hostages and Israel maintains the right to defend its citizens in accordance with the UN Treaty, she wrote.
